What have you made today?

I've been after a decent chef's knife for a while now, but everything I like is more expensive than I can really justify. So I bought a chef's knife blade instead.

Didn't like the shitty little press-fit studs that it came with for attaching a handle, so I turned down some threaded knurled brass nuts I had and used them with stainless screws for a 2-tone loveless bolt instead. The handle itself is made of azobe (red ironwood) my grandfather brought over in the 70s/80s. Stuff's brilliant for hard-wearing applications like knife handles (and gorgeous), but it's fuck-useless for everything else. It's ridiculously hard to work, right until you give up and throw it on a milling machine.

Couple of the bolts didn't seat perfectly, but other than that I'm pretty pleased with the whole thing. Planning to slowly go back and replace the handles on all my other knives so I can have a matching set.

I feel it needs to be said, Damascus steel knives are beautiful. Take care of that knife please. One of my goals in life is to get a chef's knife created specifically for my hand and making the guard yourself is definitely one way to get that.

Last edited: Jul 14, 2016

Scotch O'clock is whenever you have a glass in your hand and a drink in your heart.

Out of curiosity, did you seal the steel/brass contact surface? If not, you're likely to get galvanic corrosion of the steel where they contact.

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Heh. For the record, my day job is basically stopping (primarily metal) artefacts from corroding on a 50-500 year timeline. I'm less fastidious in stuff I make (because fuck durable, I like pretty), but it does still get factored in.

All contact surfaces are sealed with a low-viscosity epoxy. It will still corrode; even a thin epoxy sealant isn't going to be perfect inside threading like that, and the outer surface is just sealed with wax after sanding. I like the aesthetic though, and I don't particularly mind replacing the handle in 20-50 years. The sealing between the wood and steel is probably going to fail first anyway, and the corrosion resistance for VG10 isn't really good enough to stop the tang corroding if there's a moist microenvironment held there. Which there periodically will be after that seal fails. But again, should be good for at least 20 years, and I don't mind replacing the handle.

That looks to be San Mai steel correct? Also for some flair for the other blades you could try using mosaic pins and epoxy bond - the right combination of pin pattern and the etch pattern can look real awesome.

VG10 is a high chromium stainless so unless you really leave it in some acidic hellhole without ever cleaning it corrosion really shouldn't be an issue.

The Albionman patted his belly. “Iron stomach,” he said. “Runs in the family. I come from a long line of seamen.”

Nothing like an overqualified DLP member to make you feel (more) like a slack-jawed moron. :mrgreen: <- I have to smile, because the alternative is self immolation.

Cool knife, though. Nothin' like a good knife.

I can use those, because I have my Stone Age Tools qualification certificate from the Cave Johnson school of "We're not banging rocks together, here."

"14 year olds don't need to know who Dobby's shagging. More to the point, nobody needs to know who Dobby's shagging." - TheInquisition

"Let me tell you a little something about love, Dennis. It has a voracious appetite. It eats everything- Friendship. Family. It kills me how much it eats. But I'll tell you something else. You feed it right, and it can be a beautiful thing, and that's what we have." - Arnie Cunningham, Christine

All of my blacksmithing experience is pretty firmly in the Euro-American tradition (and absolutely none of it is in blades), so I'm largely unfamiliar with Japanese terminology. From a quick Google I think San Mai is the rough terminological equivalent for laminated steel, in which case I think the answer is 'yes'. Should be a VG10 edge with 410/431 around it.

Also for some flair for the other blades you could try using mosaic pins and epoxy bond - the right combination of pin pattern and the etch pattern can look real awesome.

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I'm became aware of the existence of mosaic pins when I was looking up possible options for this; had never head of them before. In the end it was a matter of price, and lack of desire to experiment with something completely new on this knife.

One of the reasons a 2-tone loveless bolt won out was to be able to do exactly what you're suggesting though. It means I can use anything with brass or white metal for pins, and as long as I stick with azobe for the grips (and maybe tie it all into a knife block or something) they should still look like a set.

VG10 is a high chromium stainless so unless you really leave it in some acidic hellhole without ever cleaning it corrosion really shouldn't be an issue.

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The phrasing was probably more my particular corrosion-related neuroses shining through than anything else; you're right for all practical purposes. I spend a fair amount of my time trying to figure out the worst case scenario for this sort of thing though, and there are very few materials that will flat out not corrode in this kind of application. None of which are particularly well suited for making a knife blade out of, unfortunately.

The main issue is if the sealing layer between the wood and the tang goes, the wood is both A) slightly acidic, and B) inclined to buffer a contained environment to a relatively high RH. Given enough time with that, you will get some level of corrosion, and given enough time you have the possibility of some really weird surface chemistry getting extremely localized areas of high acidity. It's unlikely to result in anything beyond surface corrosion on the tang itself within my lifetime. But I'm not sure how well this wood takes to adhesive to begin with, and if there's surface rust on the tang that will further weaken the adhesive bond in that sealing layer. And at that point I think the handle is held well enough mechanically not to move anyway, but if that layer breaks down enough and the grips start to wiggle I'll just replace the bastard thing.

Even in the worst-cast there, corrosion on the tang would probably buff out. I don't think I could do structural damage to the metal itself within my lifetime (or not without deliberate abuse anyway), but it should be possible for the handle as a whole to be damaged enough to require replacement with the right combination of failures.

Decide to try out a sketch of Dumbledore with a style I usually use. Thought about adding a phoenix in the left corner but it didn't work out.
Out of the 3 HP fanarts I've done, this is easily my favorite.

Halfway through re-handling my knives. If you're buying shitty cheap knives, Precision brand ones are better than Faberware. The tang on the Faberware one was just an outline; rivets don't actually go through anything other than their shitty, hollow plastic grips. Fuckers.

Precision branded ones still have ~1/3 of the metal cut out of the tang, but at least the rivets are actually real and the plastic grips are mostly solid. Downside is it's slightly more difficult to rip the old grips off without sending shards of plastic into your face, but I'll take the trade off.

Handles are all Azobe still, but I've started using mosaic pins instead of loveless bolts for the smaller knives. I'll probably grab some bigger mosaic pins for the last two big ones, and I'm debating re-doing the first two now that I kind of know what I'm doing. I went on and made a knife block for everything, but I have no clue what it's made out of. It's some sort of African hardwood, but I'm still trying to track down exactly what that stuff is. Really nice grain though, and actually not too difficult to work.

I don't get the time to draw at all these days (I haven't done it for years) but I drew this on my arm while I had some downtime at work before lunch. I'm almost disappointed it'll wash away after my next shower, but good to know I've still got the talent. Here's the original I based it off Coretan

Last edited: Sep 19, 2017

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“Say, Harry,” Dumbledore mused as they stared up at the imposing iron-wrought structure, a mild smile on his face. “Do you think we should knock?”

"Perhaps." The raven-haired seventh year grinned and raised his wand. “Very loudly.”

@Republic They are sculpted out of clay and then fired in the kiln we have. Then they are glazed and fired again, basically like any mug. You can put theim in a dishwasher. Some we have made press molds out of so we can make multiple copies of the same sculpt.